Philadelphia 76ers player Seth Curry — who was sidelined due to injury during the team's matchup against the Brooklyn Nets — left mid-game on Thursday night after testing positive for coronavirus.
According to ESPN, Curry — brother of Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry — was wearing a mask while seated next to teammates and coaching staff before walking out of the bench area after being told about the diagnosis.
The positive test resulted in the 76ers remaining in New York overnight to undergo more testing on Friday following their 122-109 loss to the Nets, the outlet reported.
Just days prior, Nets star Kevin Durant was placed in isolation following potential coronavirus exposure. The 32-year-old tested negative three times and still has antibodies in his system after first contracting the virus in March, according to ESPN. Despite this, he has to remain in isolation for a week due to league protocols.
Curry, 30, will also have to isolate for a minimum of 10 days following his positive test, and will have to test negative twice before he's allowed to rejoin the team, the Philadelphia Inquirer said.
The NBA did not have a single case of coronavirus after they moved their operations into an isolated area inside the Walt Disney World resort to finish the 2019-2020 season. Other sports organizations that held games outside of a bubble in 2020, such as the MLB and NFL, experienced multiple outbreaks of coronavirus throughout their seasons.
This season, NBA teams returned to a more typical format, without a bubble.
"You know the difference in football. They play once a week," Sixers coach Doc Rivers — Curry's father-in-law — said. "They have 1,000 players. So you know when you miss three or players, you can still get away with it."
"So [if] one of our guys, or two of our key guys, get the virus, and they miss 10 days, or 14 days," he added. "That can be eight games in a 72-game season … That could knock you out of the playoffs.
As of Friday morning, more than 21.6 million Americans have tested positive for the virus since the beginning of 2020, according to a New York Times database. Another 365,495 people living in the United States have died from it in the same time span, with 4,112 of those deaths coming on Jan. 7 alone.
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